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It depends on the situation, I think. I much prefer not to have a set “adventure” or “module”. The nature of D&D makes it a bit tricky to avoid that. The game expects and benefits from preparation. There are ways around it, but not everyone is aware of them or able to pull them off. For many...

I think it depends on the game. Many of the elements of D&D are, to this day, simply relics of wargaming that have been repurposed for RPGs and have mostly remained out of inertia. Certainly there are many other games that seem to just be a collection of different mechanics without any clear...

Your pedantry knows no ends.

First, I’m not saying to neglect it. I’m saying that it has a time and place. Second, I believe it can be done with less time and effort than you believe. If the adventure is an expected thing… if we’re going to be playing a specific adventure because that’s what the GM has prepared… then I...

I tend to agree that examples of most types of game mechanics can be found in earlier games that wouldn’t be called modern. For me, I tend to consider processes and procedures as being potentially more modern. Formalized procedures for group character creation and session zero, for example...

No, I disagree. If a GM is a good enough actor to actually evoke emotion in players that regularly and strongly, then sure, they should continue to do it. If they’re not… and my guess is that the vast majority are not… then they should not expand an area of the role they’re not strong at. They...

Yeah, absolutely. This is the kind of thing that folks tend to complain about a lot in threads on these topics… where “players aren’t engaging”, or they’re not “buying in” or “taking the hook”. Why leave it up to doubt? If the plan is to explore the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, then let’s get to...

Perhaps. My issue here is the potential quality of the performance. If your portrayal of the teary-eyed king... designed to elicit a specific emotion... doesn't land... let's say it makes me chuckle... then the scene may actually be counter productive. The immediacy of the task at hand is...

That's not an argument I made.

It’s likely less effective because the average GM isn’t a highly skilled actor or author. Your portrayal of a teary-eyed king isn’t going to do the heavy lifting that a professional portrayal will do. That’s why I would personally get to the point, and try to establish the stakes in another way...

I don't know if I agree. I think there's a time and place for some of this sort of thing, but I also think that there are other ways to establish stakes. I think the type of scene that you're talking about works well in traditional fiction... a novel or a movie may benefit from such a scene to...

Count me in for getting right to the adventure. If that’s what play is meant to be about, then delaying it just seems silly. Context and character can be established as you play. It’s never felt organic to me to do a bunch of free roleplay and only then proceed to what’s been prepared.

Sure, but “grid-based” was only one of several elements you mentioned, and my personal opinion is that a grid is not needed for combat to be tactical. But that slight difference aside, one can easily be added. Or ported entirely from another game as @zarionofarabel suggests. But hey… there...

It has no grid based rules, but it has everything else X-Com has that you mentioned, so I figured it was worth bringing up. Not that I think it’s needed to get what you want, but I think you could likely add gridded combat pretty easily if you wanted.

Band of Blades is a dark military fantasy take on Blades in the Dark. One of its direct influences is X-Com, which is sited as a touchstone in the book. The playloop is very similar in that there’s a mission that the soldiers go on, and then there’s a management phase to handle the legion’s...

Sure, but I think we can focus on what you offered in the examples and don’t really have to worry about a broad application oftbe term. The GM forcing things in a certain direction is railroading. If he’s clumsy about it, it’s very obvious. If he’s clever about it, it may be nearly...

Did you play D&D or Dark Sun in the 2e era? Comments like these make it seem very much like you did not. Not only that… the setting has a built in explanation for the appearance of any race at all: the Pristine Tower. It’s an ancient structure that mutates beings wounded within miles of it...

For many folks, artful railroading is no better than clumsy railroading. It’s the railroading itself that is the issue… not how well it’s done.

I GM and/or play with two groups. The first consists of friends I’ve had for decades, and we’ve been playing RPGs together since we were kids. The second consists of people I play online with that I met here on EN World. We’ve played together long enough and chatted often enough that I also...

There's a big difference between a house rule that's adopted to better fit the needs of the group, or to fill a gap in the rules that the group has found would be better served by having a specific rule, and house rules that are used by the GM to make their railroading more artful.